| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 生物及解剖學研究所 === 101 === 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is an illegally recreational drugs that may cause degeneration of serotonergic system in primate brain . In this study , we examined the long-term effect of MDMA in monkey brain and explored whether dextromethorphan (DM) could protect against MDMA-induced neurotoxicity using Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) . [99mTc]TRODAT-1 and [123I]ADAM are radioligands , coupled with SPECT can image dopamine transporters (DAT) and serotonin transporters (SERT) , respectively . Seven monkeys (macaca cyclopis) were tested in this study . All the seven monkeys were performed brain imaging using [123I]ADAM or [99mTc]TRODAT-1 coupled with SPECT . In the MDMA-treated group of the brain imaging studies were conducted up to about 4 years after the drugs treatment, and MDMA/DM co-treatment group were conducted up to about 2 years . The uptake ratios (URs) of [123I]ADAM were determined by drawing manually the regions of interest (ROI) in midbrain , thalamus and striatum of monkey brains , and [99mTc]TRODAT-1 were determined by drawing manually the ROI in striatum that divided to the cerebellum (i.e ., ROI/cerebellum) . The URs of [123I]ADAM of MDMA-treated group were significantly lower than those of normal monkeys but the URs of [99mTc]TRODAT-1 were no significant . The URs of the MDMA/DM co-treatment group demonstrate no significant difference when compared to the normal values , but obviously higher than those of MDMA-treated group . These results indicate that MDMA-induced serotonergic toxicity could persist over four years in nonhuman primate . In addition , DM could alleviate the serotonergic neurotoxicity of MDMA in brain of nonhuman primate .
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